The invention relates to food products, in particular to spreadable food products that are especially suitable for cold use and in frying. Furthermore food products according to the invention are especially suitable if high temperature (greater than or equal to 25xc2x0 C.) ambient stable products are desired.
Spreadable food products such as margarine are often used both in cold use as a spread for example on bread and in hot use, for example as a shallow frying medium. These products usually comprise an aqueous phase and a fatty phase.
These products preferably fulfil several characteristics. For example if used as a paste or sandwich spread on bread or toast, these products are preferably spreadable; i.e. they can be applied onto bread at room temperature without tearing the bread. Such products are for example disclosed in WO 97/04660. Examples of spreadable products are margarine and margarine like products.
Furthermore these products are preferably of sufficient hardness, such that a part can easily be taken out of a tub or cut from a wrapper product.
The mouthfeel of these products is considered an important attribute. It is generally desired that in cold use, these products easily melt in the mouth. Preferably the products do not impart a sticky impression. According to another preference these products easily release flavour components when consumed.
The aqueous phase ingredients may for example contribute to flavour release.
If the products are used in shallow frying they preferably do not show spattering. Spattering of a common frying medium, such as a water in oil emulsion, is believed to be caused by superheating of water droplets. At a certain point after heating the frying medium said water droplets explosively evaporate, whereby oil can be spread all over the surroundings of a frying pan wherein the emulsion is heated. This may cause danger to the person who intends to fry foodstuff in the heated emulsion.
Another disadvantage of frying products that is often encountered is residue formation. Brown or black residue may be formed when for example biopolymers such as proteins are heated in a frying pan. Preferred products show little or no residue formation when used as a frying agent.
There is a desire for products that show good functionality both when applied as a spread for cold use, and when used as a frying fat. Moreover there is a desire for such products that are also stable (i.e. showing no or a least reduced syneresis) at temperatures from ambient temperature (25xc2x0 C.) and above, up to around 50xc2x0 C. U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,795 aims at low fat products with enhanced flavour, which products remain solid and easily spreadable at all temperatures within the range from 32 to 74 F. (about 0 to 25xc2x0 C.), and which melt down quickly in the mouth to release flavour without imparting a xe2x80x9cwaxyxe2x80x9d mouth feel. This is therein fulfilled by products comprising 10 to 30 wt % of a dispersed fat phase; a continuous aqueous phase comprising an emulsion stabiliser and an emulsifier system comprising both lipophilic and hydrophilic emulsifiers. The products disclosed in said document comprise regions of clustered fat droplets.
It has been found that products according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,795 do not easily melt in the mouth. This is believed to be caused by the high stability of the product. Moreover the stabiliser present in the aqueous phase provides a xe2x80x9cthickxe2x80x9d aqueous phase which may negatively influence the mouth feel of these products. The spattering behaviour of the disclosed products is expected to be unsatisfactory. Moreover according to some embodiments starches and/or proteins are present to provide product firmness. In the disclosed amounts residue formation is considered to take place, which is often not desired.
Furthermore EP 483,896 discloses spoonable non dairy creams comprising emulsifiers such as Tween (polyoxyethylene sorbitan fatty acid esters) and preferably 1 to 10 wt % of a milk protein source.
These products are considered soft products wherein fat globules are present in a xe2x80x9cclusteredxe2x80x9d state. If clustered, the fat globules are in mutual contact via shared adsorbed emulsifier (casein micelles) which is present on the surfaces of both fat globules. Due to the relatively high emulsifier contents that are taught, the resulting products are considered to be stable, which negatively influences the mouth feel of these products upon consumption; the structure does not easily break up at increased temperature and therefore flavour release is believed to be relatively slow for these products.
Moreover the preferred presence of for example 7 wt % protein, will lead to undesired residue formation in frying applications.
Furthermore U.S. Pat No. 4,443,487 discloses a spreadable emulsion, which is at least partially inverted due to specific processing conditions. It has been found that these products invert upon heating, whereby a water in oil emulsion results. Such emulsions have been found to show undesired spattering and are therefore considered less suitable for frying applications.
Matsumura, Y. et al (Bioscience, biotechnology and biochemistry, vol 59, no 9, 1995, pages 1688-1693) disclose an oil in water emulsion comprising palmkernel oil and canauba wax, wherein the oil phase is present in the form of aggregated oil droplets. The high melting canauba wax may have a detrimental effect on mouthfeel. Upon heating this emulsion to 25xc2x0 C., a creaming layer formed on top of it. This implies the product is not ambient stable.
None of the cited documents discloses a spreadable food product of sufficient hardness, that is suitable for use in shallow frying and as a xe2x80x9cspreadxe2x80x9d in cold use, and preferably also is ambient stable.
It has now been found that the above indicated objectives can be obtained by a food product comprising an oil phase and an aqueous phase and a hydrophilic emulsifier whereby the oil phase is present as a clumped fat phase.
Accordingly the invention relates to a food product comprising from 20 to 80 wt % of a fatty phase, said fatty phase comprising a fat having a solid fat profile of more than 30% solid fat at 5xc2x0 C. and more than 25% solid fat at 20xc2x0 C., and wherein the food product comprises one or more hydrophilic emulsifiers and whereby said food product is bicontinuous and further characterised by a clumped fat network and a Stevens hardness value at 5xc2x0 C. of from 50 to 500 g.
In a second aspect the invention relates to a process for the preparation of such a food product.